Reasons
by Freaking Cage
Summary: Yako wonders why she's posing as an investigator for Neuro.


Yako stared out the classroom window with dazed and half-lided eyes

Yako stared out the classroom window with dazed and half-lided eyes. Her teacher was rambling on about a math function she'd forget in five minutes, thence she decided it would be best to think about something else for the time being.

Yako had the small knack for catching onto others' emotions. She had felt the feelings of Aya Asia, and her need to expose herself and her loneliness. She felt the lack of emotions, the blunt sense of killing for experimentation from X, and shuddered at the thought of it. She felt something from Mr. Sasazuka, though what she couldn't quite put her feelings on. She felt things, but the problem was, she didn't understand them.

She felt Aya's loneliness but didn't understand. She felt X's sadistic curiosity, but didn't understand it (not that she'd ever want to). She felt Neuro's hunger, she felt Sasazuka's austerity, she felt her friend's frustration, and though she knew the causes to them all she didn't _understand them_.

As Neuro would chide, _She wasn't evolved_.

Irritated, she tapped her pencil on the desk and frowned a bit, stomach growling slightly but not enough to draw her out of her thought coma. But most of all, she couldn't understand herself. She knew more than anyone just how inhuman Neuro was, she knew that probably better than Godai even. She knew that and she felt her incessant nagging in her brain telling her to get away from it all. She knew she had to get away. She knew that this attention from the masses would do her no good, and though she'd lucked out on meeting Godai who was a good person beneath it all (aside from his protesting and grueling language), she didn't wish to meet any other person from the 'underground'.

Ever sense the X cases she felt that nagging increase. That ominous aura that emanated from that small boy was enough to send Goosebumps the size of icebergs down her spine. That horrible sense of the _closeness_ of death whenever he was in the room...

Yako still couldn't shake it off. Unconsciously she brought her arms in and her feet crossed at her ankles, giving the impression of being cold. She bit on her sleeve and continued to stare into the landscape beyond the glass pane.

_So close yet so far_, she wished in vain.

She could never really get away from Neuro, she told herself. He would sooner have her killed than let her go. Or worse, he'd do something as terrible as he did with the criminals they discovered. She shuddered and felt something tap on her shoulder.

"Hey Yako, you cold? I can ask the teacher to turn off the air conditioning if you want." An eager classmate offered from behind her. She recognized him to be one of the many students that had bombarded her with autograph-signings when she'd first started out. She shook her head and thanked him politely, then returned to her daydreaming.

She didn't really feel like interacting with someone who was only after her attention. Her eyes furrowed for a moment as she scolded herself. He only meant to help, there was no need to judge him so quickly. She sighed and closed her eyes.

She just wanted to escape from it all. Why did she stay with Neuro and help out on his cases? They brought her nothing but pain and fear, two things most humans do all they can to stay away from. She'd wondered if she was a masochist at some point, but she let that idea drop. If it were true, she didn't want to know it. Her pencil tapped the desk with fervor. _Why?_ She asked again and again.

Was she trying to prove herself to him? To prove that she _could_ evolve? Yako shook her head, _No. If that were the case, then why did I stay before?_

Her actions just weren't matching up with her emotions, and it irked her. Her stomach growled but she paid no attention to it; she had more important things to worry about. _My state of being for one._

Wrinkling her forehead harshly, as if the more wrinkles she produced the better she'd be able to concentrate, she went further into a subconscious state. She knew the answer was right in front of her, she _knew_ it. But like her own state of satisfaction, it was always barely out of her reach.

What was Neuro to her? A demon. He was thoughtlessly ruthless, he was selfish, and he was demeaning. She was his slave, and seemingly willingly so. How did that happen? Did she have so little confidence? Did she feel like she owed him for finding the murderer of her father? Did she actually like seeing these horrible crimes for the small, sometimes nonexistent feeling of satisfaction the solving of the case brought? Neuro, to her, was someone that only ever made her confused. Every action of his brought something closer to the edge and by his doing it would fall over the cliff and smash to a billion pieces.

_Would she be next?_ was her question. Neuro was agitating, Neuro was horrible, Neuro was convoluted and a puzzle himself that would never be solved. Neuro was a hellish being that was never satisfied, always hungry.

Yako's stomach belched out an obnoxious sound, one that caused the entire class to turnaround and Yako herself to jump. She looked down at her menacing stomach and it grumbled its annoyance in response.

_Neuro was always hungry,_ Yako thought again. So was she.

As the epiphany struck her, she sunk down into her seat, not from shame as everyone expected, but from untainted reality. Katsuragi Yako saw herself in Neuro. The reason behind all of these mysteries was Yako trying to help Neuro find the ultimate dish that would feed him. Yako stared straight ahead, horrified at this strange revelation. She was empathizing with a demon! Slumping so badly it would horrify Emily Post, she moaned. Who would have thunk it?

A pestering pinging came from inside Yako's pack and for a moment, she hesitated in answering it. She could claim she hadn't heard it from the noise of the teacher's coarse breathing, but knew excuses didn't fly with Neuro. She could throw it out the window, but that would only give her momentary release. Most likely two seconds later it would come flying back at her and get shoved up her nose. She looked at her bag desolately and sighed, slowly pulling out the small contraption.

Yako begrudgingly accepted the prospect of a new mystery. _Just maybe_, she hoped to herself, _It'll be near that new Austrian restaurant._ She heard they had great pork there.

* * *

Author's Note: Blech. So I'm a fairly new Neuro fan, and this is my first Neuro fic. It's not as good as I'd like it to be (I'd give myself a C), but I'm posting it for criticism. Any suggestions? Originally I put Neuro in, but I just couldn't get him right that I deleted the whole scene. What I'd like to do is do a series on the reasons people put up with Neuro, and later to go on a Neuro/Yako fic. But I'm not sure how it'll work out. Lots of constructive feedback is hoped for, and as long as it's constructive I won't get upset. So please! Give your opinion!

-freakingcage7


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